A circuit arrangement and a method for operation of lamps are known from the document DE 10 2005 007 346 which forms this genus. The circuit arrangement contains a stop device which can prevent the electronic switches in the half-bridge inverter from being switched on, and enables them only during an on-time. The on-time is dependent on a lamp parameter, by which means a control loop can be closed. This circuit has the disadvantage that the start burst for the lamp depends on the tolerances of the load circuit components. Furthermore, problems occur when a lamp inductor which magnetically saturates is used, because the effective resonant frequency is then also shifted.